God of War 4 Will Have A Ton of Extras, Dev Talks Inspiration

One of the biggest reveals of E3 2016 was that a new God of War game was coming out, proving the truth of rumors that God of War 4 would be set in Norse mythology now that Kratos has destroyed the Greek pantheon. While Kratos is in a new setting and now has a son, there’s still a lot of familiar things that will be coming with the game.

To start off with, the game will be big. The final shot of the E3 trailer, where Kratos and his son looked out over what looked like a big open world while Nidhogg swooped over them, definitely makes it seem that way. The game won’t be a 100-hour-long open world game, but it will apparently be big enough that what we’ve seen of the game isn’t even one percent of what will be in it.

Kratos will still be opening chests to gain things like health, mana, and experience, which will likely serve their usual purpose of giving him upgrades to the various weapons he’ll accumulate over the story. Kratos earning experience in hunting is also indicative of other sorts of experience gains, though we don’t know what.

Cory Barlog, the director of God of War 4, has said that he took inspiration from various other games and movies while developing the game. These included The Road, The Last of Us, and Resident Evil 4. As two of those games involve a much more capable man watching over a vulnerable young boy, it’s easy to see where that comes from, along with the Resident Evil 4 “over-the-shoulder camera” look.

In addition to all of the inspiration, God of War 4 is also implied to have a New Game Plus mode, where Kratos can slog his way through the game with all of his previous upgrades and a few special ones to add to the bargain.

God of War 4 is supposed to be releasing sometime in the holiday of 2016.